Franklin's Autobiography (Eclectic English Classics)

retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence; never using, when I advanced any thing that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion; but rather say, I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so and so; it appears to me, or I should think it so

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Another sign of progress in our practice of Stoicism is that our philosophy will consist of actions rather than words. What matters most, says Epictetus, is not our ability to spout Stoic principles but our ability to live in accordance with them. Thus, at a banquet a Stoic novice might spend her time talking about what a philosophically enlightene

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Je ne peux prétendre avoir réussi à acquérir réellement cette vertu, mais je crois être parvenu à en donner l’apparence. Je me fis une règle de ne jamais contredire les opinions des autres, et de ne jamais soutenir ouvertement les miennes. Je m’interdis même, en conformité avec les statuts de notre cercle, d’employer tout mot ou toute expression qu

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